RIPON Grammar School opened its archives to the public to reveal stories of heroism and sacrifice from the First World War.

As the nation prepares to mark 100-years since the end of the conflict, visitors gathered at Ripon Grammar School library this week to discover more about the 287 young men and boys from the school who went off to fight at the Front - and the 49 who never came back.

A poignant display put together by the school’s Old Rips alumni society helped bring some of the names on the school’s Roll of Honour to life.

Researchers unearthed faded black and white photographs of the young men, information about their activities at school and touching letters which they sent to old pals at RGS from the Front.

In December 1914, the school magazine reported that the first former pupil had been killed in action at the Battle of Aisne in France.

John I’Anson, who died on September 20, 1914, was 31.

Samuel Cartwright, 19, wrote to his old school from ‘somewhere in France’, explaining that his job was to take the wounded out of the firing line to one of the many casualty stations.

He died in 1918, aged 22, after being severely wounded at the Front, just six days before the war ended.

Other stories include the tale of 28-year-old George Dixon, who died in the summer of 1918 when the submarine he was serving on - relatively modern warfare technology at the time - was sunk by a mine. There were no survivors.

One past Ripon pupil, Peter Benson, from Roecliffe, returned to his old school for the first time in 66-years, with a photograph of his uncle, Whitfield Benson, who was killed aged 28 in 1918.

Old Rips alumni chair Derek Crookes said: “We were pleased to see such interest from former students and the people of Ripon in these young lives so sadly and tragically lost, reflecting those of millions lost across Europe at that time.”